PHILADELPHIA — One was a midshipman at the Naval Academy who wanted to become a member of the Navy SEALs. Another was the young chief executive of an education start-up, excited about her new job. A third was a seasoned software engineer helping The Associated Press news service move into video. Another was a banking executive. Still another, an educator.

All were aboard Amtrak’s Northeast Regional Train No. 188 when it derailed just outside Philadelphia on Tuesday night, killing them and two other people. Two hundred more were injured.

Justin Zemser, 20, of the Rockaways in Queens, was in his second year at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, and his parents, Susan and Howard Zemser, were expecting him.

“He was supposed to come home last night at 10:30 p.m., and when I went online to see if everything was on time, it said there was a derailment,” his mother said at an impromptu news conference on Wednesday outside the family’s apartment complex. “It was all plastered on TV. And then I just kept on calling the hospitals,” but nobody could help her.

“Then we got a phone call this morning, saying my son had passed,” Ms. Zemser said.

“He was wonderful,” she added, holding back tears. “He was absolutely wonderful. Everybody looked up to my son.”

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Justin Zemser, 20, of Queens, died.

A talented athlete, Mr. Zemser was valedictorian of his high school class and volunteered with a local Special Olympics team, said Patricia J. Tubridy, the former principal of the Channel View School for Research.

“He was a determined young man and a gentle young man,” Ms. Tubridy said. Even after graduating, she recalled, Mr. Zemser visited the school often, giving pep talks to younger students about setting goals and going to college. “The school’s very upset,” she said.

A friend from his football team, Nkozi Stewart, now a freshman at the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, said Mr. Zemser not only worked incredibly hard but also always tried to lift his teammates’ spirits.

“It would be freezing outside, and he would come out in a shirt and no sweats, and everyone was out there in sweats,” Mr. Stewart said. “There is no doubt in my mind that he would have been a Navy SEAL. He had the determination and work ethic.”

Another victim, Rachel Jacobs, 39, who was taking the train home to see her husband and 2-year-old son, wanted to use her success to help others. When her classmates at the Columbia Business School got jobs at investment banks after graduation, she went to Kyrgyzstan to help start a microfinance system to nurture cottage businesses.

“She wasn’t one of the people who wanted to make millions,” said Michelle Kedem, a friend from business school, in a telephone interview. “She wanted to figure out how the tools of business could drive public change.”

Ms. Jacobs grew up outside Detroit, the daughter of a longtime state senator in Michigan, Gilda Jacobs. An alumna of Swarthmore College, the younger Ms. Jacobs founded a nonprofit organization called Detroit Nation that encourages people who grew up in and near Detroit to volunteer their expertise to help revitalize it. With her service-minded worldview, friends said, they expected her to one day run for public office.

A resident of the Lower East Side of Manhattan, Ms. Jacobs recently became the chief executive of a start-up company in Philadelphia called ApprenNet, which sells technology for video-based learning in classrooms.

“Rachel was mission-driven,” Ms. Kedem said. “She wanted to have her career and change the world.”

Another victim of the derailment, Jim Gaines, 48, was a video software architect for The Associated Press who won the news service’s “Geek of the Month” award in May 2012 for his “tireless dedication and contagious passion,” according to a statement from the company. Since joining The A.P. in 1998, Mr. Gaines had been a “key factor in nearly all of the news agency’s video initiatives,” according to the statement.

On Tuesday, he was taking the train from Washington to his home in Plainsboro, N. J. He is survived by his wife, a son and a daughter, who said in a statement that they were grieving, and declined to comment further.

Paul Caluori, a friend and colleague, said Mr. Gaines would be remembered for his intelligence and award-winning work, but also his “humanity and his outsized kindness.”

“Once he saw you, you would absolutely get a hug, and he’d ask you how your kids were, and he’d ask you if you wanted something to eat,” Mr. Caluori said.

Mr. Gaines had recently organized a “Bring Your Kids to Work Day” program at The A.P.’s Cranbury, N.J., technical center.

“He made a lot of kids really happy,” recalled Mr. Caluori, who said he had looked out the window to see Mr. Gaines, surrounded by children, blowing bubbles. “He was smiling harder than the kids were,” Mr. Caluori said.

A fourth victim was identified by Wells Fargo Bank as Abid Gilani, senior vice president of the bank’s hospitality finance group. Mr. Gilani had worked for Wells Fargo about a year and a half. He split his time between New York City and Washington, and his LinkedIn profile said he had previously worked for Marriott International and Scotiabank.

The identity of a fifth victim, Derrick Griffith, dean of student affairs and enrollment management for Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn, was confirmed on Wednesday night by a college spokeswoman. Mr. Griffith, 42, founded the City University of New York Preparatory Transitional High School and in 2011 became the executive director of Groundwork Inc., which supports young people in impoverished urban communities. He earned a doctorate of philosophy in urban education from the City University of New York Graduate Center one month ago.

Among the train passengers still missing on Wednesday was Bob Gildersleeve, 45, of Baltimore. His family taped leaflets with his photo around Center City Philadelphia, and his son, Marc Gildersleeve, 13, said in an interview that his extended family had come to the city to search.

“My mom and his brother have gone to many hospitals looking for him,” Marc said. “We’ve got no information so far.”

Correction:

An article on Thursday about the victims of the Amtrak crash, using information from The Associated Press, referred incorrectly to a survivor of Jim Gaines, an A.P. employee who died in the crash. His survivors include a son and a daughter, not two daughters.

Dave Philipps reported from Philadelphia, and Motoko Rich from New York.

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A16 of the New York edition with the headline: Three Victims With a Common Thread: All Were Heading Home to Family . Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe